Reform Bahai Faith
2008-04-09 11:15:22 UTC
Reform Bahai Articles
"To be a Bahai simply means to love all the world; to love
humanity and try to serve it; to work for universal peace and
universal brotherhood." - Abdu'l-Baha
For over three years now since 2004, the Reform Bahai Faith has
once again existed, born anew from tyranny and oppression, from
essentially the same spiritual upheavals as that of Ruth White,
Mirza Ahmad Sohrab, Julie Chanler, and the thousands of Bahais
who left in protest under the imposition of an oppressive organization
based on the fraudulent will and testament of Abdu'l-Baha throughout
the 1920s, '30s, and '40s. God has, throughout the decades, preserved
the historical record of events for perceptive minds and souls.
Despite all fanatical, fundamentalist attempts to suppress all memory
of Abdul-Baha's vision and interpretation of Baha'u'llah's Faith, to root
it out, to coerce and slander, malign and expell, shun and besmirch the
testimony of the Writings and the early believers, the Bahai Movement
has continued to endure, quietly persist, giving testimony to the vision
of God's oneness, the oneness of humanity and religion, and the human
potential for peace and brotherly love.
The books and publications of White, Sohrab, and Chanler have kept
this vision alive, while the Baha'i upheavals and conflicts of the last
three decades have led many thousands of Baha'is to experience for
themselves the depth and degree to which the Faith of Baha'u'llah has
been traduced and desecrated by people who seek to use and exploit
it for their own worldly benefit, power, glory, and material gain.
The Divine Being has created a world of impermanence, evanescence,
where nothing lasts forever, and all humanity is subjected to the
vicissitudes of life, the fragility of health and constitution, the limits of
human existence that He alone knows and sets. With an increasing
sense of mortality, I feel it is incumbent upon me to set down, in writing,
my own testimony of what I believe to be the truth about the Bahai Faith,
having now been a member for over thirty years and having watched or
participated in many struggles and debates and studied or watched
those of many other souls in their search for truth and understanding.
Thinking of Martin Luther and John Wesley, I feel it especially as a duty
and obligation to leave a record of my views for the Reform Bahai
Convocation, which, God willing, one day, shall convene to restore and
revive the moderate, spiritual religion of Baha'u'llah and Abdu'l-Baha
and clearly set a new course away from the fanatical and fundamentalist
Islamist sect of the Haifans, based on their fraudulent will and testament,
propagating a manipulative creed intended only to coerce the individual
believer and subject him or her to the tyranny of an illegitimate and
mutilated organization.
Article I
"The Revelation which, from time immemorial, hath been acclaimed as
the Purpose and Promise of all the Prophets of God, and the most
cherished Desire of His Messengers, hath now, by virtue of the pervasive
Will of the Almighty and at His irresistible bidding, been revealed unto men.
The advent of such a Revelation hath been heralded in all the sacred
Scriptures." - Baha'u'llah.
Article II
Baha'u'llah's appointed heir and interpreter is Abdu'l-Baha.
Article III
As scientifically judged by Dr. C. Ainsworth Mitchell, the purported will
and testament of Abdu'l-Baha is a fraudulent document: "That is to say,
the writing does not agree with the hypothesis that it was all written by
one person." "A minute comparison of the authenticated writing with
the writing on every page of the alleged will . . . has failed to detect in
any part of the will the characteristics of the writing of Abdu'l-Baha, as
shown in the authenticated specimens." Dr. C. Ainsworth Mitchell,
Report on the Writing Shown on the Photographs of the Alleged Will of
Abdu'l-Baha, Library of Congress, 1930.
Article IV
The Baha'i organizations, based upon the fraudulent document, including
the writings of Shoghi Effendi,* are inescapably defective and deficient:
"There is apparent contradiction between this section of the Will and
his lifelong teachings." "Abdul Baha had never in speech or writing given
the slightest indication that there would be a successor to himself. On
the contrary, a number of addresses delivered by him on various
occasions had made the opposite impression" (61). Mirza Ahmad Sohrab.
The Will and Testament of Abdul Baha, An Analysis. New York: Universal
Publishing, 1944.
Article V
The results of the spurious document has reverberated down the
generations and decades, as Ruth White rightly perceived: "Whether the
alleged will of Abdul Baha is authentic or spurious, the results of the
administration of Shoghi Effendi* and the National Spiritual Assembly of
Baha'is stand as an historical indictment against them. [Boldface in
original] They no more represent the Bahai Religion than the bigots of
the dark ages of Christianity" (100). Ruth White. Abdul Baha's Questioned
Will and Testament. Beverly Hills: White, 1946.
Article VI
"The Bahai Movement is not an organization. You cannot organize the
Bahai Movement." - Abdu'l-Baha. The mystery of that paradox calls all
Bahais to seek its meaning and return to the universal, liberal Teachings
of Baha'u'llah and Abdu'l-Baha and their Writings.
Article VII
Far from creating a theocratic tyranny, the Founders of the Bahai Faith
taught a moderate, universal, global religion, grounded in a spiritual
democracy, teaching the separation of church and state, with science
in its own respected domain, each a profound differentiation of social
duty and responsibility, as in Abdu'l-Baha's "Sermon on the Art of Governance":
"The religious law is like the spirit of life,
the government is the locus of the force of deliverance.
The religious law is the shining sun,
and government is the clouds of April.
These two bright stars are like twin lights in the heavens of the contingent world,
they have cast their rays upon the people of the world.
One has illuminated the world of the soul,
the other has caused the earth to flower.
One sowed pearls in the oceans of conscience,
while the other has made the surface of the earth a garden of paradise." (Tr. Sen McGlinn)
Article VIII
With every passing year, the Writings of Baha'u'llah are being restored to
humanity, from those who debased and lowered them to the level of a
trademark and copyright.
Article IX
Reform Bahais choose to leave those who choose hatred, shunning, and
interminable recrimination over the fraudulent will and testament and over
stultifying legalisms, and look to the Spirit of brotherhood and love,
knowledge and understanding, prayer and meditation, worship and
community, service to one's country and the world of humanity.
With the assurance of Abdu'l-Baha that humanity has entered the stage
of maturity, wherein the individual can independently search for truth,
Reform Bahais testify, in this universal, global age, that He reserves for
Himself the "hearts of men," rendering to Caesar what is Caesar's, as
Baha'u'llah taught in the Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, accepting and
embracing His multifaceted vision, the mystery that surpasses understanding.
Reform Bahais invite all Bahais, all humanity, to a Convocation of
celebration, peace, love, and brotherhood, to seek humbly together
His Will and service, for the good of all people and nations of this
spinning globe.
The Reform Bahai Faith
95 Theses - On Bahai Liberty
www.ReformBahai.org
0ctober 4, 2007
* Please note that the Reform Bahai Articles depart from the acceptance of the authenticity of the purported will and testament of
Abdu'l-Baha and, hence, the legitimacy of any guardianship. See Abdu'l-Baha's Covenant.
http://www.reformbahai.org/Covenant.htm
"To be a Bahai simply means to love all the world; to love
humanity and try to serve it; to work for universal peace and
universal brotherhood." - Abdu'l-Baha
For over three years now since 2004, the Reform Bahai Faith has
once again existed, born anew from tyranny and oppression, from
essentially the same spiritual upheavals as that of Ruth White,
Mirza Ahmad Sohrab, Julie Chanler, and the thousands of Bahais
who left in protest under the imposition of an oppressive organization
based on the fraudulent will and testament of Abdu'l-Baha throughout
the 1920s, '30s, and '40s. God has, throughout the decades, preserved
the historical record of events for perceptive minds and souls.
Despite all fanatical, fundamentalist attempts to suppress all memory
of Abdul-Baha's vision and interpretation of Baha'u'llah's Faith, to root
it out, to coerce and slander, malign and expell, shun and besmirch the
testimony of the Writings and the early believers, the Bahai Movement
has continued to endure, quietly persist, giving testimony to the vision
of God's oneness, the oneness of humanity and religion, and the human
potential for peace and brotherly love.
The books and publications of White, Sohrab, and Chanler have kept
this vision alive, while the Baha'i upheavals and conflicts of the last
three decades have led many thousands of Baha'is to experience for
themselves the depth and degree to which the Faith of Baha'u'llah has
been traduced and desecrated by people who seek to use and exploit
it for their own worldly benefit, power, glory, and material gain.
The Divine Being has created a world of impermanence, evanescence,
where nothing lasts forever, and all humanity is subjected to the
vicissitudes of life, the fragility of health and constitution, the limits of
human existence that He alone knows and sets. With an increasing
sense of mortality, I feel it is incumbent upon me to set down, in writing,
my own testimony of what I believe to be the truth about the Bahai Faith,
having now been a member for over thirty years and having watched or
participated in many struggles and debates and studied or watched
those of many other souls in their search for truth and understanding.
Thinking of Martin Luther and John Wesley, I feel it especially as a duty
and obligation to leave a record of my views for the Reform Bahai
Convocation, which, God willing, one day, shall convene to restore and
revive the moderate, spiritual religion of Baha'u'llah and Abdu'l-Baha
and clearly set a new course away from the fanatical and fundamentalist
Islamist sect of the Haifans, based on their fraudulent will and testament,
propagating a manipulative creed intended only to coerce the individual
believer and subject him or her to the tyranny of an illegitimate and
mutilated organization.
Article I
"The Revelation which, from time immemorial, hath been acclaimed as
the Purpose and Promise of all the Prophets of God, and the most
cherished Desire of His Messengers, hath now, by virtue of the pervasive
Will of the Almighty and at His irresistible bidding, been revealed unto men.
The advent of such a Revelation hath been heralded in all the sacred
Scriptures." - Baha'u'llah.
Article II
Baha'u'llah's appointed heir and interpreter is Abdu'l-Baha.
Article III
As scientifically judged by Dr. C. Ainsworth Mitchell, the purported will
and testament of Abdu'l-Baha is a fraudulent document: "That is to say,
the writing does not agree with the hypothesis that it was all written by
one person." "A minute comparison of the authenticated writing with
the writing on every page of the alleged will . . . has failed to detect in
any part of the will the characteristics of the writing of Abdu'l-Baha, as
shown in the authenticated specimens." Dr. C. Ainsworth Mitchell,
Report on the Writing Shown on the Photographs of the Alleged Will of
Abdu'l-Baha, Library of Congress, 1930.
Article IV
The Baha'i organizations, based upon the fraudulent document, including
the writings of Shoghi Effendi,* are inescapably defective and deficient:
"There is apparent contradiction between this section of the Will and
his lifelong teachings." "Abdul Baha had never in speech or writing given
the slightest indication that there would be a successor to himself. On
the contrary, a number of addresses delivered by him on various
occasions had made the opposite impression" (61). Mirza Ahmad Sohrab.
The Will and Testament of Abdul Baha, An Analysis. New York: Universal
Publishing, 1944.
Article V
The results of the spurious document has reverberated down the
generations and decades, as Ruth White rightly perceived: "Whether the
alleged will of Abdul Baha is authentic or spurious, the results of the
administration of Shoghi Effendi* and the National Spiritual Assembly of
Baha'is stand as an historical indictment against them. [Boldface in
original] They no more represent the Bahai Religion than the bigots of
the dark ages of Christianity" (100). Ruth White. Abdul Baha's Questioned
Will and Testament. Beverly Hills: White, 1946.
Article VI
"The Bahai Movement is not an organization. You cannot organize the
Bahai Movement." - Abdu'l-Baha. The mystery of that paradox calls all
Bahais to seek its meaning and return to the universal, liberal Teachings
of Baha'u'llah and Abdu'l-Baha and their Writings.
Article VII
Far from creating a theocratic tyranny, the Founders of the Bahai Faith
taught a moderate, universal, global religion, grounded in a spiritual
democracy, teaching the separation of church and state, with science
in its own respected domain, each a profound differentiation of social
duty and responsibility, as in Abdu'l-Baha's "Sermon on the Art of Governance":
"The religious law is like the spirit of life,
the government is the locus of the force of deliverance.
The religious law is the shining sun,
and government is the clouds of April.
These two bright stars are like twin lights in the heavens of the contingent world,
they have cast their rays upon the people of the world.
One has illuminated the world of the soul,
the other has caused the earth to flower.
One sowed pearls in the oceans of conscience,
while the other has made the surface of the earth a garden of paradise." (Tr. Sen McGlinn)
Article VIII
With every passing year, the Writings of Baha'u'llah are being restored to
humanity, from those who debased and lowered them to the level of a
trademark and copyright.
Article IX
Reform Bahais choose to leave those who choose hatred, shunning, and
interminable recrimination over the fraudulent will and testament and over
stultifying legalisms, and look to the Spirit of brotherhood and love,
knowledge and understanding, prayer and meditation, worship and
community, service to one's country and the world of humanity.
With the assurance of Abdu'l-Baha that humanity has entered the stage
of maturity, wherein the individual can independently search for truth,
Reform Bahais testify, in this universal, global age, that He reserves for
Himself the "hearts of men," rendering to Caesar what is Caesar's, as
Baha'u'llah taught in the Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, accepting and
embracing His multifaceted vision, the mystery that surpasses understanding.
Reform Bahais invite all Bahais, all humanity, to a Convocation of
celebration, peace, love, and brotherhood, to seek humbly together
His Will and service, for the good of all people and nations of this
spinning globe.
The Reform Bahai Faith
95 Theses - On Bahai Liberty
www.ReformBahai.org
0ctober 4, 2007
* Please note that the Reform Bahai Articles depart from the acceptance of the authenticity of the purported will and testament of
Abdu'l-Baha and, hence, the legitimacy of any guardianship. See Abdu'l-Baha's Covenant.
http://www.reformbahai.org/Covenant.htm